Child of Destiny

…

Frozen Kingdom

In the Castle situated at the very center of the Frozen City.

A black coffin was floating at the center of the throne room while emitting a miasma of alternating black and crimson color.

There were a series of purple runes written on its surface, moving with a certain tempo. Those runes were also glowing with the same rhythm as if they were synchronizing with a beating heart.

Black chains connected on different corners of the room as they wrapped themselves in the floating coffin at the center.

Bang!

A few moments later, an armored knight suddenly destroyed the door of the room and entered.

The armor that this person was wearing was completely black as blue lights were glowing out on its segments.

There was animal fur wrapped around his shoulders as the blue cape extended down from it. And on that cape, a symbol of the dragon was embroidered, giving off a majestic feeling.

If Shin and the others were here, then they would instantly recognize this person since he was the commander of the Fallen Knight Army that they faced earlier, the former Grand Marshal of the great army tasked to subdue the evil force within this region.

He was Grand Marshal Amar.

He continued to walk toward the center of the throne room and only stopped when reached a few meters away from the floating coffin.

He then unsheathed the sword hanging on his waist before swinging it in the air.

Shing!

Cling! Cling! Cling!

Then wind blades were released from each of his swings, cutting the black chains wrapped around the coffin.

Bang!

Each of the chains was heavy as they created a cloud of dust right after they fell on the ground.

Pssh!

Then black smoke was released from the coffin as its top was slowly opened.

Amar watched the coffin calmly as the cover of the coffin was pushed to the side by a pair of pale hands.

Then a man suddenly sat up and slowly stood up from the coffin before jumping down from it.

That person with a very pale face had a handsome appearance that was out of this world. He might be even more beautiful than most women with the appearance of a goddess.

The man swept his gaze at the surroundings, seemingly unaware that he was completely naked. After confirming that nothing seemed to have changed after his long slumber, he sightly nodded his head before snapping with his fingers.

Swoosh!

Then a black aura suddenly shot up from his shadow and wrapped around his body before turning into a fancy black suit and huge cape.

That was only the time when he turned to Amar and greeted him. “It has been a while old friend.”

Amar seemed to scoff at him after hearing that. “We are not that close to addressing each other as a friend.”

“Tsk! Tsk! You don’t have to be like that. We can at least be considered as people of the same race right now, so you don’t have to be that distant,” said the handsome man.

“Dracula, the first vampire. Let me remind you, we did not help you at that time because we sympathize with you and your people. He rebelled against that Wicked God because of the crimes that she committed,” said Amar with a sharp tone.

“If not because of Fionn begging me to spare your pitiful lives, then we have already annihilated you, spawns of a Demon King,” he added as the glowing embers under his helmet burned much stronger.

Dracula, the ancestor of all vampires, smiled widely when he heard those words, showing his canine teeth. “Is that so? Then how come you become a Fallen Human after rebelling against the Divine?”

“How come an ascended person such as your esteemed self, who first became an Immortal, fall into such a terrible state?” he emphasized.

“You used to be worshipped by the people who surpassed the limits of humanity and become on par with Transcendent Beings, but look at you now, you can even leave this land because of the curse cast upon you,” he added, further provoking the Grand Marshal.

Amar didn’t refute those words and turned. “You should get ready right now. Some of the Righteous Churches send their respective representative to investigate the area. Three of the great army are already been freed by them.”

“Hoh!”, Dracula suddenly became interested when he heard those words and suddenly pinched his thumb, index, and middle finger together, seemingly deducing something.

Then his eyes suddenly shone as if he found a hidden treasure. “A Dragonkin, a Primordial Beast, a High Human, an Ancient Elf, and a Nephilim. Interesting, truly interesting!”

Then his brow suddenly turned higher as he spotted an even more interesting entity aside from the ones that he just said earlier. “Oh~! Look at this, there is even a guy that came from my lineage?”

“Even though his bloodline is a little impure, can easily be solved. Should I make him my successor? His compatibility with my bloodline is much better compared to my retainers,” he muttered, seemingly ignoring Amar.

Then he suddenly sensed a few more presences within his land. “Eh!? There are also some Demonic Beings. Tsk! Tsk! Looks like I’ve slept for too long. Are these younglings trying to conquer my territory in my absence? How dare they?”

“Oh! There is another one? What is that? An Elf with Demonic Powers? A Demonic Being but, at the same time, it is not? Strange, this guy is strange,” he continued.

Seeing that Dracula was getting lost in his own world, Amar decided to leave. He already did his role, what was left now was for this Vampire Ancestor to do his part.

Sensing that Amar was already leaving, Dracula quickly turned his head. “Leaving already? We still haven’t settled our scores, are you sure that it is fine for you to run away?”

Amar knew that Dracula was only trying to provoke him, so decided to ignore him and just waved his hand without looking back. “You should wake your retainers now and prepare for what is about to come.”

“If I am not mistaken, the prophecy should be close. It is even possible to occur now because of the presence of different Transcendent Races,” he added as he exited the room.

Dracula narrowed his eyes as he watched Amar leave before muttering with a solemn tone. “The prophesy of our great ancestor, huh?”

From his tone, he was not talking about his current race, but about the civilization and religion that he had before, a Dragon Worshipper.

He then recalled certain phrases from that so-called prophesy. – “At the land of promise, when darkness shrouded the sky, the great heroes of the world would gather once again and stop the re-emergence of unprecedented calamity.” –

– “The Gate of Darkness would be reopened once again, creating a rift between the pure justice and the corrupted.” –

– “The Corruption would spread on an even greater scale than what it used to be and throw the world into chaos.” – 𝓫𝓮𝒹𝓷ℴ𝓿ℯ𝓵.𝓬ℴ𝓶

After muttering those words, Dracula suddenly wore a scornful smile before turning his head to the ceiling of the throne room.

There was a great mural drawn in the entire ceiling that seemed to be there for ages. The mural was projecting the great wars that the entire world had suffered, starting from the vague Dark Era of ancient times all the way to the Repelling Era of the recent generation.

He observed the mural for quite a long time before casting his gaze at the center where a black vortex was formed. It was summoning strange monsters of different sizes and hideous appearances.

After that, he shook his head with a bitter smile as if this problem was not his concern. In a sense, he was no longer a part of the so-called ‘Just’ and ‘Righteous’ Functions.

He then stomped on the ground, releasing a powerful shockwave that shook the entire throne room.

Not long after, a door was suddenly opened on the floor alongside the appearance of stairs leading to the underground.

Climbing down those stairs, he arrived in a special room that was filled with coffins. He continued to go deeper within the room towards the center where seven coffins were floating in the air.

He extended his hand, releasing a dark miasma that covered those coffins. And after a few moments, the floating coffins started to open one after another, waking up his retainers from their deep slumber.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Right after waking up, none of them asked a question why they were wakened up and just quickly jumped away from their respective coffins before arriving in front of Dracula and kneeling on the ground in a respectful manner.

“Greetings our lord!”

They shouted with all their might, shaking the whole room.

Dracula swept his gaze at them and observed their auras before nodding his head satisfyingly. He then turned around and walked towards the exit. “Start preparing. The end of our contract is about to arrive, so make sure that you are prepared.”

“We can no longer rely on those cursed ones and can only depend on ourselves. But in exchange, the restrictions cast upon us can no longer affect us,” he added without turning back.

……